


Sap But True

by Ornament_of_Rhyme



Category: Dead Poets Society (1989)
Genre: M/M, Post-Welton, Smitten Neil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-11
Updated: 2017-09-11
Packaged: 2018-12-26 00:03:34
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12047109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ornament_of_Rhyme/pseuds/Ornament_of_Rhyme
Summary: On nights like these, if only for a short time, his life was absolutely perfect.





	Sap But True

**Author's Note:**

> My first excursion into Dead Poets Society since chapter 1 of Demon Santa Candles a couple of years ago. I am relearning the characters currently, and would like to note that their characterization here isn't necessarily representative of future DPS stories.
> 
> This is a good time to say that Demon Santa Candles is finally back on my plate. As I've always promised, it will be completed!
> 
> You can thank my mother for this title, by the way. It's nice to know where I got the dumb title gene.

The velvet red curtains fell together, and Neil let out a deep, fulfilling sigh. With a broad smile, he flitted around to congratulate his castmates, patting them on the back or passing out hugs.

“Wanna go get a drink with us?” Jessie asked over the chatter. Kay was at her side, stony as usual. Already, the latter had shrugged off her role's heavy coat and abandoned it somewhere.

“Thanks, but I've got a date.” When Jessie rolled her eyes, his pep remained obstinate. He returned the taunt with a wrinkle of his nose.

Glancing into the wing, Neil zeroed in on said date.

Todd was there, out of the way but noticeable. He had his jacket draped over his arm, and his hair was swept to the side like he had been running his fingers through it. It was a nervous tick he had. That, and the blinking. For the first time, Neil wondered if his stress over the show had been impacting Todd as well.

“I'd go wipe that makeup off your face before Danny mistakes you for a lady,” said Kay, straight-faced.

Neil grimaced. Danny was creepy to anyone of any gender, but his particular brand of sleaze was directed at all beings wearing makeup, it seemed. There was a rumor going around that he was the one who stole that mannequin head a few weeks back.

Strolling off stage, he called back, “Talk to you later.”

“Call me!” Jessie commanded at his back.

Todd's eyes were on him the whole time, and a fond little smirk quirked his mouth. Giddy with the heady success, the joy in the air, Neil loped over to the blonde.

“My dearest Toddrick,” he greeted. Gallantly, he took up Todd's hand, bowed, and stamped a kiss on the knuckle.

“You were fantastic,” Todd told him. “I told you you could pull it off. Everyone was raving when the curtains closed.”

“I'll have to thank them,” said Neil, releasing the hand in his.

Briefly, Todd's brow furrowed as he looked down at his knuckle. “You got lipstick on me.”

Neil grinned and shrugged. “Oops.” Then he made for the dressing room, but not before smacking a kiss onto Todd's cheek, leaving a puckered purple lipstick stain behind. “I'll go clean it off.”

He heard Todd's unimpressed snort behind him.

 

_ϟ ϟ ϟ_

 

Some time after the play was dedicated to wrapping up with the cast and crew, and then to visiting with others, but eventually Neil was back in his own clothes and out in the crisp night air. With Todd at his side, they set for home, which was only a few blocks away.

Slick with hour old rain, the road glittered under the street lamps. Petrichor was on the breeze, instilling a strange and familiar heartache, but it was beautiful in its way. After shows, he found the smallest things would trigger the feeling, leaving him in a kind of rapture. His life, if only for that short time, was absolutely  _perfect_.

Now, he looked over at his partner with that thrill in his heart. Todd looked back curiously.

“I can see it,” the blonde said.

Neil grinned at him, then the deep sapphire sky. “If only you could feel it with me.”

Todd bumped elbows with him, drawing his eyes back down. Only half of his face could be seen from Neil's angle, but he seemed to mirror the look the actor felt on his own face. “It rubs off on me,” Todd said to the ground. “You shine so bright, it's impossible to avoid the radiation.”

There was the poet in him, Neil thought. Weaving words, even so few, into a charming sentiment. Each time it happened, Neil found himself falling just a little more in love with him. And each time, it surprised him; he didn't know there was any further to fall.

Soon they crossed the empty street, coming upon a fenced off field. Nearly home.

It was here that Neil caved to the pressure in his chest. He backed Todd against the chain link fence until their breath mingled. Todd went willingly, even grasping the open sides of Neil's coat. The dark shadow of a fence post fell across one half of his face.

Neil curled his fingers into the cold wire, effectively caging the other in. Stray raindrops slithered down his palm and under his sleeves, chilly but ignored. It took everything in him not to close the gap between them. Especially at the challenge Todd's eyes leveled at him, humor in their depths, as though expecting him to cave to the tension.

But they didn't do that. Not here. Not out in the open, exposed to the judgments of others.  
  
It was a near thing, though. Not just in this instant, but many before. Sometimes they were so wrapped up in each other, they forgot to mind themselves until the last minute.  
  
Neil wished he could forget--or better yet: that he didn't have to worry at all. Todd was such a temptation, besotted as Neil was with him. It amazed him that the other man didn't seem to know this, even after these last few years.  
  
It wasn't until Todd's eyes crinkled at the corners that he realized he had been staring into them.  
  
"You seem lost," Todd commented.  
  
Neil easily slipped back into the moment. "You do that to me.”

A light laugh. “Sorry.”

“No, it's great. I love it.” Neil pushed off of the fence, pulling back. “Shall we?”

Despite his pulling away, the tension in the air did not dissipate. In fact, it only seemed to strengthen, as they devolved into playful shoving and, eventually, a race. They dashed down the sidewalk, each trying to overtake the other before they reached their stoop. Neil could have crowed into the night, overjoyed as he was, but settled for echoing Todd's unbridled laughter.

This was what they lived for. The two of them grew into adulthood side by side, taking on the challenges of becoming men of their own, but each able to lean against the other. All the while, they learned how to keep themselves sane; keep them young at heart, unjaded by the world's oppressive demands. They often explored the boundless art of getting safely lost in the here and now together, as lovers and friends and brothers in mind.

Of course, their neighbors didn't understand that. They shushed each other as they passed Mr. Joice's door.

Trotting up the steps, Todd bit back his laughter as best he could, and Neil aimed for something similar, but somewhere, almost distantly in the rush of their race, he could still hear himself snickering.

Ultimately he forgot to pay attention to who won. Todd unlocked the door and they poured inside.

Before the door could latch again, Neil had the other man spun around and crowded against the wall beside it. He toed the door shut.

Todd laughed at his enthusiasm, but still beat him to the kiss. Neil's hand rose to cup Todd's cheek reverently. They stood there in a timeless embrace, lips meeting lazily, then fevered, and back again. It was quickly becoming apparent where they were headed as their hips rocked together.

It took more effort than he would have liked to drag his mouth away from Todd's. He settled for easing out of it by pecking on a few softer, more chaste kisses like appeasements or apologies for the parting.

It was almost worth it when he could focus on Todd's face. There was a flush high on his cheeks, a lustful haze to his eye, and his lips came away red from the activity.

“What?” Todd asked, the only sound but for their faint panting.

Neil couldn't look away, not even down to consider the sight of their hips hitched together, and the sudden tightness of their pants. But they were not to be ignored. He leaned back into Todd, dropping a kiss on the square of his bare jaw.

“I want inside you,” Neil breathed at last.

Just as usual, Todd seemed almost embarrassed by the insinuation, but said, “I—I want you inside of me.”

Neil rolled his hips against Todd's once more and stepped away to discard his coat and shoes. Todd did the same before disappearing into the bedroom. All too eager, Neil followed.

He couldn't keep his hands to himself as Todd began to undress, holding the blonde by the hips and pressing into his back. Todd chuckled and elbowed him a few times, because apparently Neil's body right up against his wasn't conducive to taking off his shirt and undershirt.

“You still have some makeup on, you know,” Todd said.

Lost in the act of nosing at the fine hairs on the back of Todd's neck, Neil didn't process the words right away. Once they got through to him, he dropped his forehead against the spot on which he'd been lavishing attention. Then he made for the bathroom down the hall.

“I’m on it.  _You_ get ready for me,” he said.

“Someone's impatient,” teased Todd without looking back.

“Oh ho ho, don't pretend like you don't feel the same.”

This made the man laugh outright, but he didn't disagree.

 

_ϟ ϟ ϟ_

 

“Neil!” Todd cried from the other room. Dropping the towel, Neil hurried across the hall, only to find Todd sprawled out on the bed, bare and writhing around the fingers he was using to prepare himself. Before he could ask what was the matter, Todd's head lolled his way and he panted,  _“Hurry.”_

Darting back into the bathroom to ensure the effectiveness of his cleaning job, he turned off the sink and returned to the bedroom, tearing at and tossing off his clothes as swift as possible. Nude, he knelt onto the bed, crawling over Todd, who had since turned to lay on his chest.

Neil asked, “Did you grab a—“

“Don't worry about it. Just—please—“

“Someone's impatient,” he echoed Todd's earlier jest.

“S'your fault.”

“Hmm. Strangely, I don't regret it.” Then, cutting himself off, Neil curled closer to his partner, guiding his cock into Todd's familiar body to sink slowly inside. He held his breath and savored every second off it.

A shiver wracked Todd, straight into the noise that shook from him as Neil filled him. Once seated they lay together, soaking in one another's heat as their breathing reached an apparent synchrony. Falling together, but not, as they were taught in that life-changing year of school, to lose individuality so much as to treasure the bond between them.

One of Todd's hands slid across the quilt to tangle his smooth fingers with Neil's. He took this as his okay to keep going.

Neil lifted himself from limning Todd's back and pulled away from his root within Todd, an agonizingly slow process, until his cock was only just inside the tight ring of muscle and he could feel his hips straining with the effort to still.

Todd squeezed his hand; the real go-ahead. Neil pushed back in, starting just as slow for the first several thrusts until they were at a fluid pace. Neil's lips found Todd's shoulder blades, kissing and teasing at the warm peach-fuzz there.

Often, Todd locked much of his pleasured sounds behind his teeth, concerned for their reputation among the neighbors. It robbed both of them from the full, carefree experience they knew was just out of reach, but Neil tended not to press Todd to relax his fears on the matter anymore. By now he knew that he wouldn't be able to convince him to let it go.

That was why, when Todd let loose a low, open-mouthed groan, Neil felt a spike of affectionate thrill. He quickened his pace in response, longing to hear more.

Eyes fluttering closed—the beautiful kind of flutter that came when Neil touched him, rather than that which anxiety provoked—Todd pressed back, meeting his movements with shallow ones of his own.

That was when, in the yellow lamplight, Neil glimpsed the dark purple smudge across the other's cheekbone. For a stunning instant, he thought it was a bruise. But then his impish kiss backstage returned to mind.

Against the blonde's ear, Neil murmured, “There's some lipstick on your cheek.”

Todd scoffed and reached up to scrub at his cheek, but Neil beat him there to instead mouth at the smudge. He settled for blindly brushing his fingers over Neil's jaw. “I couldn't see if I got it all off.”

“Next time I have my own dressing room,” Neil said with a languid roll of his hips, “I'll have you against the vanity. Then you'll see everything.”

He got a moan in response. Quiet, but infused with equal satisfaction in the fantasy.

After that, Todd switched positions to lie on his back. He grasped at Neil by the waist and actually continued to voice the sounds of his ecstasy. Coveting the noises, Neil gave all he could. Anything to please his partner.

Finally, with a shudder, Todd cried out. Neil lovingly stroked the blonde's cock as he came, allowing the come to drip over his knuckles. In a few more thrusts, he was burying his face in Todd's neck as he hastily pulled out and followed over the edge.

When he could see through the blissful daze, he hurried to clean the mess, insisting the blonde stay put so he could hurry back and lie with him without the chore nettling. Todd held up the blankets for him when he arrived, making it a smoother transition for Neil to wrap around him as soon as he slipped under the blankets.

“The perfect night,” he sighed.

Todd nodded. “Yeah, you did fantastic in the play. Steven did make it, by the way,” he said. “As soon as it was over he had to leave for a meeting or something. But he said you were great!”

“You think if Meeks wrote a good review, it would convince father to come to one of my shows?”

“As long as Charlie doesn't write another one. I don't think anything could be worse than that.” Todd turned to face him, seeming thoughtful. “Someday we have to find out what was in that letter.”

“It's probably cinders by now.”

Todd hummed, frowning.

“But tonight isn't just perfect because the show went well,” Neil said, drawing the other out of his thoughts. “Getting to come home with you sure made it better. You know how many of my castmates and crew members complain about having empty relationships with their lovers, or no lovers at all? And here I am, blessed with  _Todd Anderson._ ”

Todd started laughing so hard he choked.

When the laughing-coughing fit petered out, Todd said to Neil's puckish grin, “You could be a tree, you're so sappy.”

“Then I am an empress tree in autumn, raining my heart leaves down upon thee.” Neil eagerly watched the bewildered expression fall over Todd's face.

“That was kind of repulsive.”

“I'll leave the poetry to you, then.” Neil noticed he was near enough to nuzzle at Todd's beautifully sculpted cheek.

“How about...” Todd stared though the ceiling as he puzzled. “God must be real, as only He could write a poem so divine as you.”

Blush came over Neil, filling him with such infatuation that he couldn't help pressing his face into the side of Todd's head and giggling like the ridiculous kid he was when they met.

“I love you, Todd Anderson,” he said.

“I'm all yours, Neil Perry.”


End file.
